French drugmaker Sanofi has exercised its option with Selecta Biosciences for second exclusive licence to develop an immunotherapy to treat celiac disease.

In November 2012, Selecta established a strategic global collaboration with Sanofi to develop highly targeted and antigen-specific immunotherapies for life-threatening allergies.

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Under the deal, Sanofi received a first exclusive licence to develop an immunotherapy to prevent acute immune responses against a life-threatening food allergen and an option to develop two additional candidate immunotherapies for allergies and celiac disease.

"This area is constantly evolving, and with partners like Selecta, breakthrough medicines may be within our grasp."

Sanofi biotherapeutics research and development head and vice-president Kurt Stoeckli said: "Sanofi and Selecta are working together to push toward the outer barriers of immunotherapy to deliver innovative solutions to patients.

"This area is constantly evolving, and with partners like Selecta, breakthrough medicines may be within our grasp."

The second therapeutic programme will involve in the development of an antigen-specific immunotherapy using Selecta’s synthetic vaccine particle (SVP) technology.

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As part of the deal, Selecta will receive research support from Sanofi, in addition to several pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and sales milestones up to $300m.

Selecta is also eligible to receive double digit tiered royalties as percentage of product net sales for any commercialised immunotherapy resulting from these efforts with Sanofi.

In October 2014, Selecta and JDRF announced other collaboration with Sanofi to develop new antigen-specific immunotherapies for type 1 diabetes.

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